Pupil stretching vertically through the golden coloured iris, and nails which are as sharp as a crocodile’s. The body is entirely covered in black scales with a tinge of purple, two horns growing from the head, and along the body which stretched out in a wave-like pattern grew a hair from head to tail, standing as pridefully as a lion’s mane. With the red wings growing from the back allowing me to fly around the sky freely, I looked like a dragon without a doubt.
I knew my name since the day I was born. However, I will shorten it to Vee since it is very long.
I was born from the molten rocks when the volcano erupted in this world which has a name, but I could not be bothered to remember it. Apart from that, I knew that my role in this world was to stabilise the unstable magic cycles. I also remember how I used to be a human in my before life, and have retained all my memories from back then.
I am now a dragon. Before that, I was a university student in a world called Earth.
……………Damn it! I wanted to be reincarnated into a human!!!!!!!!!!!!
*****************
Apologies, I have gone off track.
This was about 2 months after I started uni. I was heading off to a mixer for the new students. Wanting to make a good first impression, I picked out my outfit after thinking about it for a long time. As I was heading off to the meetup location, wearing high heels which I wasn’t used to wearing, I ended up slipping on a peel of a banana and hit my head. I couldn’t have had more embarrassing death.
Getting enrolled into a university far away from my high school, being separated from all of my friends, and moving out of my parents’ place for the first time, I learnt how important it is to have friends close by, after 2 months of having no one to talk to. This motivated me to make new friends and that mixer was an opportunity I finally found, after not having any progress for a long time ………
I didn’t care if I was only invited because they couldn’t find anyone else. I didn’t care if no one there was looking for a relationship. I wouldn’t have minded if I couldn’t become friends with anyone from the mixer. I just wanted to be acquainted with someone from my degree.
The very moment I was reincarnated, my memory was so confused that I was crying and screaming to a point the volcanoes around me all started erupting. Now that a couple hundred years have gone by, the fact that I have been reincarnated into a dragon, a species thought to be the strongest does not bother me anymore. It’s not like I had a herpetophobia before either.
……. It doesn’t bother me at all!
Except for the fact that dragons are what I call a loner species. A species which rarely interact with others.
For stabilising magic cycle, all I really needed to do was walk around, nudge, or sometimes use magic to fix part of a stream of magic which flowed through the air called leyline that didn’t look right. It was a simpler job than what I was expected.
However, I’m still a newborn as a dragon. On top of that, my knowledge from the past life constantly gets in my way and I didn’t have all the knowledge I was supposed to have as a dragon when I was reincarnated.
Like, what the hell is magic? How am I supposed to ease out this chunk that looks like a knot from a ball of wool that was abandoned in a bag for a good couple of years?
If I didn’t meet the tree spirit gramps, I still would have been an absolute failure.
Known as a plant spirit, he, who is a several thousand years old tree spirit came over to me who was crying surrounded by lava. Regardless of the fact that lava isn’t a good match with plant spirits. On top of that, he patiently told me everything I needed to know about this world for many years.
⌈No need to thank me, I finally have some to talk to after a very long time. Just think of it as keeping a company of an old man like me.⌋
He said it as if the whole thing wasn’t a big problem, but you have no idea how much the knowledge he has given me has helped me fix up these magical cycles. I’m thankful for everything the tree spirit gramps has done for me. Yet, I got reincarnated into a fantasy world and there is no prince charming or cute, fairy tale like encounter with a hot guy. Hell, I’ll stabilise these damn magic cycles to perfection that they can’t become unstable again! I swear!
…….. Okay, I’m just being dramatic, I’m not that motivated.
Anyway, with my scales as strong as an iron, and amazing skills I was taught, I was able to fix up the magical cycles enough so that there shouldn’t be any problem with it for at least 1000 years in Earth time.
Yay! Go me!
Well, it actually took me 100 years just to fix up areas near Veshana Mountain.
⌈You did an excellent job considering you’re only a newborn⌋ is what gramps said, but I know what a pain in the… I mean difficult jobs other fellow dragons are doing so I need to improve my skills in preparation for missions in future.
Yes, once I’ve finished with my mission here, I do not get freedom. I get a different mission.
Other nations seem to have more problems so there are plenty of magical cycles out there that needs fixing. Apparently, after 5000 years or so I will have a permission from the world to stay in one location, but I’m continuously moving to a different location since I’m probably the youngest dragon in this entire universe.
So like that, I left the land which I was reincarnated on, on my 100th birthday. Missing gramps who has been so kind to me.
*********
I was full of confidence the day I left.
Gramps told me that there are plenty of species with intelligence in this world so I should be able to make friends, which I couldn’t just before I died in the past life.
Since there is no need for me to sleep or to eat, I got nothing better to do but to practice the magic which gramps has taught me, like predicting what the weather is going be like in how many hours.
I don’t hate being alone, but I’m bored. Bored to death. Dying from boredom after dying from a banana peel.
I was really hoping that there will be someone I can talk to at my next location. However, that hope was crashed after a couple of locations of not meeting anyone.
The place which I have moved to was a grassland that seemed to go on forever. As I had a decent amount of experience with fixing up the magical cycles, the overall time which took me to stabilise leyline was becoming shorter. When I saw the magical cycle in this world, I thought I just needed to make a path from a nation nearby and that would be enough to stabilise it. It won’t take me any longer than 50 years, or so I thought.
For many years, I worked hard on the path. It probably looked like I was just spacing out in the middle of this abandoned land but I swear, I was working hard.
One day, a spirit which I asked for it to keep an eye out for anything unusual came to report that there was a large number of people approaching from both ends of the field.
Me, being naive just thought it was a little strange and didn’t give the situation any further thoughts.
If I thought about it a little more, I would have realised why these people were going through the trouble of coming all the way out here, far away from civilization; or detect the uneasiness in the atmosphere which the spirits have sensed. Yet my stupid self felt excited that I will finally have someone to talk to. Well, I didn’t meet anyone who I could have a conversation with since parting with gramps.
By the time I realised those people were armed soldiers, the battle has already begun. As they launched magic at each other none stop, the leyline which I have fixed was being distorted once again. At this scene, I just stared at the scene dumbfounded as the whole event took place in front of my very eyes.
I found out later that, that area was a border between two large nations and there was a war almost every year. As a result, they used up so much magic from the leyline that it was almost impossible for anyone to use magic at the border. So, the two nations were at an armistice state. I, who had no clue about any of this just appeared from nowhere and fixed up the leyline. After confirming that magic could be used at the border again, the two nations tried to make a head start at invading the other nation and that was this war which is happening right now.
I only had a little more to go, yet all my hard work was now being ruined just because of one stupid war. Without thinking, I jumped into the middle of the battle and yelled at top of my lungs in the language gramps has taught me.
⌈Oi you guys! If you don’t stop right now I will kill you all!⌋
Please, just keep in mind that I was really pissed off. However, they did not stop fighting. In fact, they started to attack me.
⌈It’s a dragon, there’s a dragon!!!⌋
⌈This is our chance, once we have taken it down, it can be our food supply. It will be enough to feed the entire army until this war ends!! Get to it guys!! Don’t let the other nation take this advantage!⌋
Magic kept on thumping against my scales while swords and spears jabbed into my legs.
It didn’t even tickle and I was already pissed from them ruining my work. On top of that, they were attacking me. Naturally, I ended up losing all my control over the two armies.
I might be only young as a dragon but I am still a dragon. Don’t you dare underestimate me! Using everything gramps has taught me, I caused an absolute chaos on the spot. As I watched the ones who managed to dodge my attack run back to their own nation, I realised something.
None of the soldiers ever replied to anything I said. In fact, I couldn’t understand a single word which they were saying.
Did they even understand what I said?
**********
⌈Cough … That is because the language you speak is a dead language that hasn’t been spoken in thousands of years. Cough cough!! I know it since it’s useful for magic, cough, however, the human society where things are constantly changing, that language has been completely lost. Anyway, the Kokuyou. It has been, cough cough cough !!!!!⌋
⌈Ok, I got it, thank you Ligurila. Just get some rest for now.⌋ I said as I threw Ligurila towards the sky. Returning her to where she belongs.
I asked about the language to Ligurila, one of the species who we call neighbours. Apparently, the language which gramps has taught me was something equivalent to latin back on Earth.
Well, gramps was a couple of thousand years old so it makes sense I guess. He also said that he hasn’t talked to anyone for the past couple hundred years.
Still, I wanted to learn the current language.
Anyways with Ligurila, if you just look at her from the outside she’s quite attractive. Yet, she often asks me to a death match. What a waste….
Even after this incident, I could not give up on trying to communicate with humans.
Maybe, I should just look for other species who I can talk to.
There are other species in this world who has intelligence.
However, there aren’t many high-level spirits like gramps that you can maintain a conversation with. There are neighbours like Ligurila but apart from her, the moment they see me they try to communicate through fist so it’s not much of a help.
Anyway, the cycle of magic is very fragile and is constantly flowing. Even if it’ been stabilised once, they need to be fixed after a couple hundred years but if you leave it unstable, the entire world will collapse. I wish the mages would feel a little sympathy for dragons since we’re the ones who need to fix up all these magic cycles after they mess it up.
This is why dragons hate humans. This is why some of them even attack humans just by seeing them, but I prefer to keep the peace. I don’t want to swing around my claws or tail at others unless I’m really pissed.
With communication, you could do something similar to telepathy with most animals as long as you send them something like a signal using magic. Yet, the most you can do is to see if they have some form of consciousness. I still have a higher chance of talking to humans than through whatever this thing is.
Oh well, Dragons’ lifespan is close to infinite so I have plenty of time.
We’re almost like indestructible objects. Unless our body is shattered into million pieces or wish to die ourselves, we do not die. On top of that, we have our own characteristics the moment we are born and because we have no need to mate, our interest in others are very weak.
Our purpose of existing is just fixing, managing and protecting the magical cycles. So looking at dragons as a species, being a loner species is probably the best for us.
Yet, I don’t like this.
I went to that mixer, well, I tried to go to that mixer despite how nervous I was because I didn’t like being alone. Just because I got reincarnated into a loner species after dying from my desperation to make friends, I don’t want to give up on my dream of making at least one friend.
Since there is no distinct gender, finding a significant other would be quite a challenge as a dragon. But that still doesn’t mean I can’t make friends. First thing first, I need to learn the modern language!
So I swore to the sunset that I will learn the language. Yet it wasn’t an easy road.
*********
In this world (from the perspective of a dragon), life is nothing but fixing leyline. There are plenty of places with unstable magic. The world is bigger than anyone could ever imagine. So we try to avoid overlapping work by choosing a location where there are no other dragons since we can vaguely tell where other dragons are. Still, there are too many places with leyline that needs to be fixed so we priorities the places that are in an immediate need of stabilising.
The places which I usually end up are places such as the summit of the mountain as tall as the Himalayas, the bottom of a very deep ocean and middle of a desert where there are sandstorms all day along, so there is no other living organism that can even survive there.
Every now and then, I do go and fix up the magic in places near civilization. However, regardless of species, the moment they see me their face drop and beg for mercy or glare at me and start attacking.
⌈Aaaarrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh !!!!⌋
⌈Please, please just let us go !!!!⌋
⌈Mummy, mummy !!????⌋
⌈I will buy us some time! You go ahead and make a run for it!!⌋
⌈Why!! You said you will stay with me forever once we finish this mission!?⌋
⌈Please… be happy⌋
⌈darling!!⌋
Although I don’t understand their language, I can sympathise with them through magic.
Guys, I haven’t done anything….
How am I supposed to learn anything about their culture or language when they’re so obviously in a terrified state whenever they are near me?
⌈I will never make friends⌋
I said to myself as I knocked them unconscious and used teleportation magic to send them over to a nearby village. When I finished my job there, I was fixing magic cycle in the middle of extreme climate again.
300 years after parting with gramps, my hope in making friends was restored.